In the tire business, performance and ultra-high-performance (UHP) tires are at the top of the game when it comes to handling, cornering, steering response, braking distances, and high-speed stability. They’re designed with reinforced shoulders and extra-rigid tread faces that can stand up to the inertia and momentum of hard maneuvers without distorting and deforming the tread, ensuring that the tread stays firmly planted on the road. UHP tires can provide an exhilarating driving experience, but the biggest problem with them is that most use a softer, stickier tread formulation that will stiffen up and lose traction on colder days. Tire manufacturers advise against using summer or UHP tires when temperatures are below 40-45 degrees F, so drivers will need to dismount those tires and swap them for all-season or winter tires when the thermometer drops (and then figure out a place to store them until spring). It’d seem like the best of both worlds would be an all-season tire that can deliver UHP levels of performance year-round, correct?

That’s where the Kelly Edge Sport comes in. The Kelly Edge Sport checks the boxes you’d expect for a UHP tire, with the versatility of year-round performance and traction. It’s a tire you can depend on for all-around versatility, pairing the sharp, secure responsiveness of a UHP tire alongside the refined ride quality, road manners, and low noise of a Grand Touring tire (and a generous limited manufacturer tread life warranty).

But don’t just take our word for it – let’s go in for a closer look with this Kelly Edge Sport review:

Features and Benefits

Here are some of the great innovations and features that make the Kelly Edge Sport a great value and a great performer:

• The improved silica-rich tread compound is designed for enhanced grip in wet conditions, long wear, shorter braking distances
• Asymmetric all-season tread with a combination of circumferential and angled grooves for superb handling and traction in wet or dry weather
• Circumferential, angled, and lateral grooves evacuate water from the tire’s contact patch to mitigate the tendency toward hydroplaning
• Reinforced shoulder blocks are designed to enhance cornering ability
• Solid center rib gives the Kelly Edge Sport improved straight-line stability and road manners along with improved steering response
• Tread pitch is randomized and computer-tuned to help keep road noise low
• The pattern of sipes multiplies the tire’s surface area and traction with hundreds of hair-thin biting edges
• Backed by a 45,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty
• The contact patch is redesigned and optimized to put more rubber in contact with the road for improved handling, traction, braking, and wear properties

Pros and Cons

So, is this Kelly tire the right choice for your ride and budget? Before you decide, let’s take a look at the tire’s pros and cons.

PROS:

• Affordable price point
• Handling is sharp and responsive
• Comfortable ride quality and low noise
• Stable straight-line road manners for long trips

CONS:

• The tire cannot be used when temperatures are consistently below 45 degrees Fahrenheit
• Not intended for off-road driving

SimpleTire’s view on Kelly Edge Sport tires

Here at the SimpleTire team, we’ve been impressed with Kelly Tires for some time. Kelly is one of America’s older names in tire manufacturing and is now part of the Goodyear family, benefiting from Goodyear’s experience and expertise in premium tires. If you’re not familiar with SimpleScore, it’s the proprietary system that SimpleTire has developed to give you an at-a-glance idea of a tire’s performance and value. We look at reviews, specs, and other data points to come up with a numerical value for traction, handling, and longevity as well as an overall average SimpleScore for any given tire. For the Kelly Edge Sport, the SimpleScore ratings are as follows:

• Traction: 7.9
• Handling: 7.9
• Longevity: 8.5
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.0

For a tire that starts at $123.99, that’s a pretty impressive set of SimpleScore numbers. The noise/vibration/harshness team at Kelly has done a great job of muting road noise and fine-tuning the Kelly Edge Sport’s tread pitch to cancel certain frequencies and resonances for a quiet ride. Handling is capable and predictable even when pushing the vehicle hard into a corner, with little tendency toward understeer or oversteer. Steering feel and driver feedback are light and responsive without being overly twitchy or sensitive, and on the highway, the Kelly Edge Sport’s straight-line stability is as confident as a locomotive on rails.

A 45,000 mile warranty is pretty admirable for a tire at this price and is even more of a value-added boon when you bear in mind that many UHP and summer tires don’t come with manufacturer’s warranty coverage at all. It’s our take that the Kelly Edge Sport is a tire that you can depend on for sharp and predictable handling, year-round traction (except for heavier snow, the kind where most all-season tires don’t do well), a quiet and forgiving ride, and long wear. It’s a great fit for a variety of sedans, coupes, minivans, and crossovers.

Vehicles the Kelly Edge Sport is a good replacement tire for

While the Kelly Edge Sport isn’t featured as the OEM tire for any new vehicles, it would be a great fit for cars and crossovers like these:

• Acura TSX
• Audi A6
• Buick Lacrosse
• Cadillac CT5
• Chevrolet Cruze
• Chrysler 200
• Ford Mustang
• Genesis G80
• Honda Accord
• Hyundai Sonata
• Kia K5
• Mazda3
• Nissan Altima
• Tesla Model 3
• Toyota Supra
• Volkswagen Passat